13 June 2009

omniGRID vs. omniGRIP- showdown and redemption

Yep, there is a difference, for sure. I purchased my first omniGRIP ruler a couple weeks ago and I almost cried there was such a difference. The urge to cry mainly because over the last two years or so I have invested in many (maaaaannnnnnyyyy) omniGRID rulers. My main complaint with them was the slipping. As soon as I tried the omnigrip, I thought "oh no!!!, now I have to give all those slippy omnigrids away and start replacing them with the grip kind.

BUT WAIT!!!! After lamenting over this dilemma for a couple of days and even putting all my omnigrid rulers in the goodwill pile, I came up with a solution. I put a small dot of hot glue in each corner (on the down side of the ruler) and smoothed it pretty flat while it was hot and I can.NOT believe the difference!!

and as you can see from this next dot, it doesn't have to be perfect, just small and relatively flat

So out of the Goodwill pile came all my rulers, redeemed by a few dots of hot glue. I even did this with all my "special" shaped acrylic templates and it works great!

they also sell Collins Brand fabric grips which are self adhesive sandpaper dots, or Dritz Quiling Fabric Grabbers which are clear self sticking dots for your rulers. They work great, and last for years.

Have you heard of invisi-grip? It's a clear static cling plastic you cut to size of the ruler. It covers the whole ruler so you don't have any areas that are void and the fabric won't slip. I tried the dots and the sandpaper blocked my view of the fabric plus the fabric would slip between the dots!

You have to wonder why they never thought of this to begin with, Penny! I've used several things, including the Invisi-grip (which loses its grip after a lot of uses), but my favorite are little green felt dots used on the bottom of vases and the like! Glue sounds even better!
Cheers!